Google Working On Tech To Rival Snapchat's 'Discover' Feature

Snapchat may not be the biggest tech platform,
but everyone likes to copy its ideas.

In yet another example of a much bigger company taking a page from Snapchat’s book, Google is developing a new service for publishers. It will allow
them to create visually oriented media content similar to Snapchat’s “Discover” feature, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the
product.

The new publisher technology, called “Stamp,” represents an escalation in the competition between tech platforms for publisher partnerships and access to media content,
which they need to drive user engagement.

On that note, Google has already entered into negotiations with media companies, including Vox Media, The Washington Post, Time Inc.,
CNN, and Mic. A preliminary version of the product could be available as early as next week, the WSJ reports.

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The news that Google is developing a Discover competitor comes on the
heels of a report from Business Insider that Google tried to buy Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, for $30 billion early last year.

More recently, advertisers have reportedly
been expressing dissatisfaction with Snapchat’s measurement and tracking tools, leaving the company vulnerable to bigger competitors with more resources to devote to wooing advertisers and
publishers.

However, Snap is moving quickly to fend off these sallies.

As reported in
MediaPost's Digital Daily News, this week it began offering marketers some “advanced” campaign management options. Among these are permutation builders that allow brands to create
and launch hundreds of targeting and creative variations with a few clicks.

Snap also began rolling out a new measurement program that addresses marketing-mix modeling (MMM). With the help of
Neustar Marketshare, Nielsen, Analytic Partners and Marketing Management Analytics, the initiative specifically measures return on ad spend (ROAS) and sales lift.

On the publisher side,
Snapchat has been introducing new features to give media content owners greater control over their distribution and audiences. Last month, it unveiled a new feature, Paperclip, that allows users to
incorporate links to external Web sites into messages and content sent within the app.

Paperclip enables publishers, along with other users, to attach links to third-party mobile Web sites to
videos or images as part of a Snapchat Story, increasing traffic to their own properties.

Snapchat also landed some big content deals earlier this summer. Most notably, in June, it announced a
$100 million content development deal with Time Warner. The deal also includes an advertising component, in which Time Warner’s TV and film business — HBO, Turner and Warner Bros. —
will also run media schedules on Snapchat.